Jerry West acknowledged recently that the Clippers were not a championship-caliber team, which was why they traded Chris Paul during the offseason and Blake Griffin at midseason and might seek to complete further deals before Thursday’s NBA deadline.

West, the Clippers’ special consultant, also praised Doc Rivers for the job he’s done in coaching the injury-depleted team this season, calling him a Coach of the Year candidate during a wide-ranging conversation recorded last week for the “Not Just Sports with Suzy Shuster and Rich Eisen” podcast.

In addition, West spoke to Shuster about Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s vision for the franchise’s future, saying, “If you’ve been as successful in life as he has, he doesn’t want something mediocre. He he wants something special, and that’s the assignment this front office has been given.

“Frankly, it gives you a reason to get up in the morning, Suzy, it really does.”

Going into the 2017-18 season, the Clippers enjoyed the greatest success the franchise has known, advancing to the playoffs six consecutive times and winning 50 games or more five straight seasons. The Clippers failed to get past the second round of the playoffs, though.

Clearly, change was in order, according to West.

“This was not a championship-caliber team,” he said. “Chris Paul, a tremendous player. chose to leave here (and the Clippers granted his trade request by sending him to the Houston Rockets in a multi-player deal), and when it happens, it opens up everyone’s eyes, OK?

“What can we do to make us better? Or, what can we do to make us more sustainable?”

The Clippers believed that by trading Paul and receiving guards Patrick Beverley and Lou Williams and forwards Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell in return last June 28, they had remade their roster in a way that made them serious playoff contenders again.

Injuries, including to Beverley, wrecked their plans. Trading Griffin to the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 29 was another way to retool the franchise in order to set it up for greater successes in the future. The Clippers wanted to become a better shooting team, and an improved defensive one, too, West said.

It also enables the Clippers to go on a free-agent spending spree in the summer of 2019, a stellar class that could include Jimmy Butler of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kawhi Leonard of the San Antonio Spurs and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors.

“Anything you do in life you need the flexibility and, certainly, this trade gives us flexibility,” West said of sending Griffin, Brice Johnson and Willie Reed to the Pistons in exchange for Avery Bradley, Tobias Harris, Boban Marjanovic and two draft picks in June.

Of the picks, West said, “I’ve always felt that drafting is the life blood of any organization.”

Responding to questions about Rivers’ future with the Clippers, West said any speculation about it had come directly from reporters and not from anyone within the organization. He also said, “The only one who said (Rivers’ job isn’t safe with the Clippers) is the media.”

“He’s done one of the best coaching jobs I have ever seen, ever seen,” West said, repeating himself for emphasis. “We have had so many injuries, it was amazing. When we came out of training camp, this team was really going to surprise people. It was going to win a lot of games.

“Pretty soon, you look around, and it looked like a hospital ward. The job he’s done to keep these guys playing has been fantastic. … You could look at him and say, ‘You know, this guy might be a candidate for Coach of the Year.’ He’s done a great job.”

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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